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UK failing to protect bees from pesticides, say MPs

By Azeen Ghorayshi

In need of protection

(Image: Willi Schmitz/Getty)

The UK’s coalition government has been strongly criticised by members of parliament over its handling of the decline in pollinating insects. The government has been accused of not doing enough to safeguard the insects, which many crops rely on.

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Some plant scientists say the ban on neonicotinoids could backfire. “You can choose to ban or restrict them further on a ‘precautionary principle’,” says Lin Field of Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, UK. But she says such a precautionary approach has problems of its own. “It seems to not take account of the risks of actually implementing the ban.” She points out that crop production could fall, and that farmers might resort to other pesticides that are more toxic.

Follow the money

The committee’s other major criticism focuses on research funding. Because of a shortage of money, the government is turning to pesticide manufacturers to fund the neonicotinoid research that underpins the National Pollinator Strategy.

That means the research will not be transparent enough, says the committee’s chair Joan Walley. Research by pesticide companies is often not peer-reviewed, or even published in full. “If the research is to command public confidence, independent controls need to be maintained at every step,” says Walley, Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent North.

Ian Boyd, the chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), defended the decision to turn to manufacturers. Boyd says pesticide companies Bayer and Syngenta were providing funding that “would otherwise need to come from a public source, and at the moment that public source is not available”.

“This government is determined to do all that it can to help bees and pollinators flourish,” says DEFRA spokeswoman Hope Hadfield.